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Dream pop band Peonies cook up some eighties sounds
(Courtesy of Peonies)On their debut record Landscape, Jakarta-based trio Peonies create a playful escapade of dreamy alternative-pop built on whimsical melodies and imagery
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(Courtesy of Peonies)
On their debut record Landscape, Jakarta-based trio Peonies create a playful escapade of dreamy alternative-pop built on whimsical melodies and imagery.
Formed little over a year ago, the trio of Jodi Setiawan, Cinta Marezi and Paramitha Citta quickly made waves within the local independent scene through strong networking and an equally determined work ethic.
The story of Landscape is as old as its creators. The writing began immediately after the band’s formation in February of last year, compiling material written by all band members — both individually and as a group. Oftentimes, says Jodi, he would have a rough guitar part, or Citta would have an idea on her keyboard, which the band would then work on as a team.
“Citta would have ideas on her ukelele too, and Cinta would want to write something about her beach holiday — that would be the seed of song ideas. I myself had a song I wrote in 2009 but never felt like it was complete until I arranged it with my bandmates,” explains Jodi
The recording itself started this year, with the band having a clear picture of how they wanted the end product to sound: like something straight out of the 1980s dream-pop playbook. Jodi explains that the group referenced late-eighties early-nineties British band Pale Saints’ lush-sounding record, The Comfort of Madnes
While it is obvious that this eighties fixation goes further, with influence also coming from US bands such as DIIV and Wild Nothing, Peonies manage to make their own sound.
Jodi says the Pale Saints taught them that the floating quality of their influences, which is often assisted by reverb-drenched production, should not obscure the vocals.
“We like the Pale Saints because their dreaminess never got in the way of sustaining the vocal’s clarity,” he says, adding that the members of Peonies listen to everything from shoegaze music, post-punk, to jangle pop.
Lyrically, the band aims to keep things simple, utilizing what they consider to be a naïve perspective when looking at everyday things.
“What is it about the day, Wednesday?”, Jodi rhetorically asks, using the main point of the song “Wednesday” as example. “On ‘Marmalade’, we try to sing about riding bicycles, and on ‘Summer’, we try to tell a tale about someone who isn’t yet able to swim.” The songs contain plenty of childlike humor, explains Jodi
The band does try to inject some seriousness through the tracks “Runaway”, “Wishlost/ Falling”, and “Whispering” — the last of which is the band’s favorite song as a collective.
“With that last song, we try to sing about the differences between [Indonesians] and how those differences can be a great thing.”
For the band, the goal is introduce their music to even more people, with the hope that it will make them even better at their craft.
“A year is certainly a short time to be in existence. But as a young band, we feel like there are already so many things we’ve learned and want to continue learning about.”
